This invention relates generally to a passenger conveyor such as an escalator and a moving walkway, and, more particularly, to a passenger conveyor having a horizontal path along which treadboards move in a horizontal direction provided between inclined paths or a passenger conveyor having an inclined path provided between horizontal paths.
A conventional passenger conveyor is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-33598, in which a horizontal path along which treadboards move in a horizontal direction is provided between inclined paths along which the treadboards move in an inclined direction.
In this conventional passenger conveyor, when the treadboard moves from the horizontal path to the inclined path, a level difference between the adjacent treadboards suddenly develops, and therefore there is a great possibility that the passenger standing astride the boundary between the adjacent treadboards may fall down because of this level difference. In this connection, when the passenger conveyor ascends, the treadboard shifted from the horizontal path to the inclined path is raised, and when the passenger conveyor descends, the treadboard shifted from the horizontal path to the inclined path is lowered. This phenomenon occurs due to the fact that the passenger properly standing at the inclined path tends to walk or move unintentionally at the horizontal path. Therefore, from the viewpoint of safety, it is important to keep the passengers from moving particularly at the horizontal path.
It has been proposed to provide caution sign lamps or an information broadcasting installation so as to caution the passengers against moving when they shift from the horizontal path to the inclined path. However, the arousing of the passengers' attention by such caution sign lamps and such information broadcasting installation is almost useless when the passengers are unattentive or distracted.
Another conventional passenger conveyor is proposed in for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,685,635, where pallets of the conveyor are upwardly and downwardly vibrated near an exit so as to inform the passengers that they are coming near the exit.